Saturday, December 13, 2014

Bernie Sanders Exposes Other Noxious Parts Of Spending Bill

The more one sees what's in this so-called "compromise" spending bill - which is designed to avoid a government shutdown, the more one grasps it's not a compromise at all but the Dems getting their asses rolled again by the more canny Repukes. Will it ever end? Who knows? But it reminds me of the giveaway bill signed back in December, 2013.

To refresh memories, the Pukes pushed through a sequester bill in which military spending cuts were offset by nearly $21 b more in automatic domestic spending cuts. This offal of a bill also rendered a Dem-proposed extension in unemployment insurance off the table, even as it also prevented any new tax increases which would have helped to limit deficits by nearly $150 b over two years.

As they are doing now, the pussyfoot Neoliberal Dems called it a "good compromise" when it was in fact a blatant giveaway. It appears these "Dems" wouldn't know a compromise from a conspiracy. But this is why we more and more depend on clear heads, not "purists" as the clueless media calls them, to point the way to clarity.

Enter then Elizabeth Warren who has clearly explained on the Senate floor why this proposed $1.1 trillion spending bill is poison as long as it includes a Wall Street giveaway that leaves taxpayers on the hook for any future collapse - after the rider has given banks permission to play with citizens' money in the risky derivatives market. R.J. Eskow in his own blog describes it as a catastrophe waiting to happen, given the last time such deregulation reigned we beheld a $6 trillion economic loss, and a prolonged recession.

That is bad enough, and one reason this spending bill ought to be sunk come hell or high water, unless that reckless amendment is removed. Some may say "we can't because the government will shut down", but I compare that to a person saving his home after a flood, but leaving black mold (stachybotrys) to spread in the basement. Sure, you have your home -but you will soon be dead anyway unless that black mold is removed!

Now, Sen. Bernie Sanders, on a Rachel Maddow segment last night, has exposed even more noxious parts of this bill that Obama, Harry Reid and other Neoliberals want to push through. Sanders ticked down a list of the crap that awaits to 'explode' in this spending bill once it's passed, including:

- Sixty percent of the spending in the bill - that is, over $620 b - is going to military, defense and as Sanders mentioned, "when they haven't even accounted for the money they've already been given".

This is not a new refrain and has been brought up many times before by former Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney, who in a Bill Moyers 'NOW' program back in August, 2002, observed the Pentagon still hadn't accounted for over $1.2 trillion. He allowed as long as this persists we aren't living in a democracy.

- Ten times more private donations to campaigns now allowed, up from the earlier $32,000 limit, This will so spread toxic "money speech" pollution through our political system that nearly everyone can now be made a whore, except the most principled.

- Gov't and other workers will now be subject to pension cuts -of up to 30 percent and possibly even more. (There's your great Neoliberal Democrat 'protectors of the middle class' at work!)

Any of these toxic turkeys by itself would ordinarily be enough to sink this egregious bill - provided we still had sane representatives and not tools of the Corporatocracy. But we don't. We have too many sellouts, cowards and whores. The "business" that does get done then is all in favor of the elite special interests that pay the political whores' freight, not for the nation's welfare.

As Jim Newell notes in his salon.com piece, "when compromise reigns supreme, the people get hosed". But the Neoliberal political imps and their lackeys benefit, as they always will, until we finally slay the two party duopoly. Yes, Elizabeth Warren would make a great President, as would Bernie Sanders (with the other VP) but as long as the Neoliberal virus persists that change will never happen.

"What’s the go-to defense of this horrid piece of legislation? It’s a “compromise.” Heh, well, that sure is true. You get some things, they get some things. It’s not really that the left gets some things and the right gets some things, mind you. It’s that special interests get paid off, and the country’s citizens get to continue living their lives.

The respective appropriations chairs, went into a room for a few days to hash out a deal covering a year’s worth of legislative battles, and then expected members to pass it within 48 hours. Those members who had the gall to glance at it and think, What the fuck?, were chastised as poor sports.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, glanced at it and thoughtWhat the fuck? "

Yes, 'what the fuck?' - a fine epitaph for this country as it now continues to race to the bottom - torturing maggots running amuck, insane giveaway financial bills to raise our debt into the stratosphere, crumbling infrastructure and all.

About Me

Specialized in space physics and solar physics, developed first astronomy curriculum for Caribbean secondary schools, has written thirteen books - the most recent:Fundamentals of Solar Physics. Also: Modern Physics: Notes, Problems and Solutions;:'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God', Astronomy & Astrophysics: Notes, Problems and Solutions', 'Physics Notes for Advanced Level&#39, Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space, Selected Analyses in Solar Flare Plasma Dynamics; and 'A History of Caribbean Secondary School Astronomy'. It details the background to my development and implementation of the first ever astronomy curriculum for secondary schools in the Caribbean.